Martha Stewart Uses a Surprising Ingredient to Thicken Soup, and It’s Probably in Your Pantry (2024)

FAQs

Martha Stewart Uses a Surprising Ingredient to Thicken Soup, and It’s Probably in Your Pantry? ›

We're happy to say you can use oats to thicken almost any soup if you use oat flour (or a food processor to grind up rolled oats or quick-cooking oats). Use about 1/3 cup of oats (before grinding) for each quart of liquid in the soup.

Roux is the most common thickener for sauces and soups. The fat serves to “oil” the flour so it does not cause lumps when added to a liquid.

The consistency can be adjusted by adding stock or water if it's too thick, or if it's too thin either simmer it on the stove or add roux or a slurry of refined starch (cornstarch, potato starch).

Make Roux for thicker soup (Butter and flour)

Roux is easy to make and will instantly give you a flavorful and thicker soup. You can do this by melting butter in a saucepan and slowly mixing in flour until you get the consistency you want, then add your Roux to your soup.

Add Flour Or Cornstarch

Instead, ladle a small amount of broth into a separate bowl and let it cool. Add a few tablespoons of flour or cornstarch to the bowl and whisk until it's blended smooth. Next, bring the soup to a simmer and add the mixture back to the pot. Pro tip: Don't dump in the entire mixture at once.

Start by using 1 tablespoon of cornstarch at a time, mixed with 2 tablespoons of water. More cornstarch slurry can be added, but be sure not to add too much. Only mix in a small amount of slurry at a time to ensure that your soup will thicken properly. Using corn starch is a fast, effective way to thicken soup.

Rice, lentils, and beans release a lot of starch and naturally thicken soups simply from simmering, but you can also mash half the cooked rice/lentils/beans before adding to the soup for a simple way to thicken your dish. Alternatively, blend half or all of the soup for a smoother texture.

One of the most commonly used food thickeners is starch, which works by absorbing liquid and swelling to create a thicker consistency. Cornstarch or flour are often used to thicken gravies or sauces due to their neutral flavor profile.

What do restaurants use to thicken soup? ›

All natural, aqueous-based polymeric thickeners are derived from polysaccharides with the most common being sourced from cellulose (wood, cotton) and starch (corn, potato). Other important polysaccharide sources include seaweed, plant seeds/roots, and those derived from fermentation.

Cornstarch, potato starch, and chickpea flour are a couple of pantry-friendly ways to thicken soups, stews, and sauces in the slow cooker.

Roux, a mixture of flour and fat (usually butter) cooked into a paste, is used for gravies, sauces and stews. Cereal grains (oatmeal, couscous, farina, etc.) are used to thicken soups. Yogurt is popular in Eastern Europe and Middle East for thickening soups.

Cornstarch is the most common thickening agent used in the industry. It is mixed with water or juice and boiled to make fillings and to give a glossy semi-clear finish to products. Commercial cornstarch is made by soaking maize in water containing sulphur dioxide.

It's important to note that cornstarch has twice the thickening power of flour. If you need to substitute cornstarch to thicken liquid in a recipe that calls for ¼ cup (four tablespoons) flour, you only need two tablespoons cornstarch.

Thick soups are soups that are thickened using flour, corn-starch, cream, vegetables, gelatines and other ingredients. Depending on how you thicken a soup, you can get different textures and flavours. For example, a potage of boiled meat and vegetables results in a thick, mushy soup.